The story revolves around young and amorous but capricious Bathsheba Everdene and her enviable problem of coping with her three suitors simultaneously. The first is shepherd Gabriel Oak, financially ruined by his sheepdog driving his flock over a cliff, now forced to work for Bathsheba on her farm. Second suitor is farmer Boldwood, to whom Bathsheba unwisely sends an anonymous valentine, which he takes so seriously as to fall in love with her. The third suitor is dashing Sergeant Troy. He loves Bathsheba's maid Fanny Robin but fails to marry Fanny because she went to the wrong church for the ceremony. Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the best known and most humorous of Hardy's novels. Even though the familiar themes of suffering and betrayal are evident, it is the product of Hardy's intimate and first hand knowledge of the attitudes, habits, inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of rural men and women. Far from the Madding Crowd, first published in 1874, was sold out in just over two months.